George Clooney May Star in Steven Soderbergh’s THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.

Less than 24 hours after news hit regarding Steven Soderbergh’s interest in directing an adaptation of the 1960’s spy series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., the project might have already nabbed a lead…an A-list lead, at that. The Playlist is reporting that frequent Soderbergh collaborator George Clooney is in talks to star in the film.

Taking into account their Oceans trilogy, Clooney and Soderbergh have collaborated on six films together, including 1998’s Out of Sight, 2002’s Solaris, and 2006’s The Good German. As reported yesterday, the film is looking to be scripted by Scott Z. Burns, the writer behind Soderbergh’s The Informant and the upcoming Contagion. Hit the jump for more info, as well as some of my thoughts.

If there’s a potential snaffu in regards to the project, it’d likely be in the scheduling. Soderbergh is currently set to shoot his Liberace biopic in the summer or early fall of 2011, around the same time he’s hoping to get U.N.C.L.E. off the ground. While Soderbergh is no stranger to multiple shoots within a year, it’s conceivable that Clooney may very well be putting the final touches on his directorial effort The Ides of March around the same time (not to mention potentially running the festival circuit for his turn in Alexander Payne’s The Descendants). Worse comes to worse, the project will likely end up with a 2012 shoot and release.

Consider me psyched. Say what you will for some of Soderbergh’s recent choices (see The Girlfriend Experience, Che), but you can’t say the guy lacks ambition. And come on–who wouldn’t want to see him return to his Limey-esque 60’s ways? Throw Clooney in there (preferably in crew cut The American mode), and you just struck cinematic gold.